Bali
has long been a mecca for tourists, but the mass crowds have also driven mass
development, and now locals are saying it’s gone too far.

This is
at the heart of the fight over Benoa Bay – a Balinese-led backlash utilizing
art and music to stop the most ambitious tourism development project the island
has ever seen.

Nicole
Curby has more.

Bali’s music scene hasn’t always been so
political.

But news that a Dubai-style development will be
built on what was once – before the plans were approved a conservation area – has
galvanized the island’s musicians and artists in a new way.

This song by Nosstresswas inspired by the tolak
reklamasi, or the ‘reject reclamation’ movement.

If the project goes ahead, 700 hectares of Benoa
Bay in Bali’s south will be reclaimed to make way for a string of artificial
islands complete with resorts, shopping centres, theme parks, and high-end
apartments.

Copok, vocalist and guitarist for the Bali band Bulhead,
says it will be something of an abomination.

“They will put culture on the island, but it
will be a plastic culture. We have real culture. It is buildings and people.
They have artificial culture. They claim that all of Bali is there, like
Indonesia Miniature Park, or Walt Disney,” Copok says.

Since the project was first approved by the
Indonesian government in December 2012, a mass movement has been gathering
steam.

Across the island vibrant banners are strung up
at intersections and on street corners, calling for the Balinese to Tolak
Reklamasi, or ‘reject
reclamation.’

Demonstrations take over the streets on a
regular basis, music concerts and art events are organized around the campaign,
and now communities across the island are compiling an album of protest songs
sung by local children.

Copok says it’s crucial people understand what
the development means.

“This movement is purely to save your home. The
developer promises heaven, but the surroundings will be destroyed, and they
will make hell all around it,” Copok explains.

To find out more, I’ve
come to Taman Baca, a permaculture garden, library and café
away from the hustle and bustle, and also a favorite haunt of the guys behind
the Tolak Reklamasi movement.

“People use art to
move and fight against the government, against the investor. We make an event
using art, music, go-go [dancing], drawing, mural art, street art. And the other youth people who don’t know
about it become interested. What is this? What are they talking about? And
that’s why our movement is growing up, and growing up, and still growing up
until now.”

That’s Adi Apriyanta Parma, a Balinese student
and activist.

He and many others are imagining a different
future for Bali – one where rampant overdevelopment can’t go on forever.

Ketut Putra, the vice president of Conservation
International in Indonesia, explains what many on the island would like to see.

“We as
Balinese we don’t reject development, we love development. But we need to
design the development that we want, to minimize or even have no impact at all
on our environment, on our culture,” Putra claims.

The developer behind the project is Tirta Wahana
Bali International (TWBI), which is controlled by influential Indonesian
businessman, Tommy Winata.

The company has promised the project will be environmentally
responsible and culturally sensitive in an area with at least 70 sacred Hindu
sites.

But the environmental impacts of building
artificial islands, says Putra, will be devastating.

“From the perspective
of, for example, fisheries, the reclamation may potentially reduce or even
fully alter the entire coastal habitats for 80% of marine species we have in
Bali. Because they use this, Benoa Bay as the nursery or reproduction cycle
[site] for those species,” explains Putra.

Since the Tolak
Reklamasi movement gained traction, musicians like Sony Bono, from the band
Nymphea have been warned by police not to mention the project at their gigs.

There’s been other
instances too, of authorities trying to control the message – of discussions of
the development banned at an international event, and of peaceful demonstrators
beaten.

But Sony Bono refuses
to be intimated, despite what he says is an overwhelming culture of silence in
Bali.

“We call
it, koh ngomong. In Balinese language koh ngomong. In English language, ‘I
don’t want to talk about it.’ It’s become our habit. So with us musicians, we try to break that
habit. So maybe if we use our language, music, through music we can break that
habit,” Bono says.

The protest has largely
fallen on the shoulders of Bali’s youth, with older Balinese initially
reluctant to speak out.

An estimated 80,000
Balinese were killed in the communist massacres of 1965-66, and those events
still loom in living memory. Adi explains.

“And also we have ‘65
history that makes old people silent with the government, don’t want to fight
against the government. Everything the government says, the old people only
say, yes and ok, yes, and ok. They are afraid history will repeat again. The
young people try to fight against that, you know,” Adi says.

Despite that, a
long-awaited change came earlier this year, when many of the older generation
added their weight to the campaign. Entire villages are now also getting on
board.

As the campaign enters
its fourth year, Balinese are pressuring the Indonesian president to step in and
put a stop to the project.

If the Environmental
Impact Assessment – now under review – is accepted, construction will be given
the final green light.